“I’m very engaged with the production,” Alvarez announces, explaining
that this Aïda is no “earthy” Egypt but a mix of evocative
ancient traditions: Aztec Mexico, Ancient Greece and samurai warriors.
“It looks a little like Stargate [the sci-fi TV series],” he
beams.

January 29, 2009

L'Opéra National du Rhin will premiere a new staging of Wagner's "Siegfried" on Friday, and the man with the plan is David McVicar. A fitting ~Lord of the Rings~ version of the "Beware of Jewish Plans For World Domination" handbook opera from the old antisemite is what we're Tolkien about.

Canadian tenor Lance Ryan sings the (100% Aryan) lead with the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg. Where the ladies at?

November 06, 2008

You can't stop the secksinesx & powah of David McVicar's new "Traviata"! Last week, the Scottish Opera was treated to their first new production of Traviata in twenty years: in a new co-production with Welsh National Opera and Gran Teatre del Liceu, McVicar presented a gritty, stripped-down version, devoid of the opening scene "big fashion parade" that we've come to expect. Opera Chic is an unabashed McV fan, even if his old snarks against poor Violetta -- he was quoted as calling the piece -- "'I could never do such a coarse, clumsy, reduction of this woman", he said in 2003, badly misreading Piave's and Verdi's genius work -- anyway he changed his mind and this was his first-ever production of Traviata, and who better to entrust it to than his usual homies, choreographer Andrew George & designer Tanya McCallin.

October 21, 2008

Asking Opera Chic to choose between David McVicar and Robert Carsen is as unfair as asking her to choose between Jeter and A-Rod (even if Alex's latest choice of companions is tipping way too heavily on the giant-piece-of-ho-bag side of the scale for OC's taste).

But OC was watching just the other day her dvd of Carsen's Traviata and she noticed how Carsen's decision to have money rain down on the stage so insistently, essentially negates the core of the opera -- without a proper understanding of the demi-monde, and what it means to the story, you just don't have Verdi's and Piave's story there.

Imagine our joy while reading McVicar say in an interview with The Times:

The whole point of the demi-monde is that it was a parallel night-time
society, which wealthy respectable men could dip their toes into, once
their wives were tucked up in bed. When you go to the altar you make
sure your wife is a virgin, meanwhile where do you get your sexual
experiences from? You get it from the demi-monde. What do you do while
your wife is producing the heirs? You go to the demi-monde. And you
don't tip your hat to these ladies if your wife is with you.”

McV gets it. That's also why, for example, it works to do a modern Così fan tutte, it really doesn't when you update Nozze, much more dependent on its era's social and cultural environment.

He also has unkind things to say -- from Glasgow -- to la Scala:

“Can I share a secret with you?” he asks. “La Scala does not do
top-notch. You may see the most expensive singers in the world, but
actually that performance has been turned around in three days, whereas
a Scottish Opera performance is done with time spent on it, with
commitment and intelligence and company spirit.

Now, it's not simply the rant of someone stuck in the provinces -- Scotland is lovely, still -- but a pretty informed snark from a director who's worked pretty much everywhere (except at la Scala). Not entirely correct because, for example, as last year's Chereau production of Tristan demonstrates, even after Muti's abrupt departure in early 2005 la Scala can do and still does first rate (when they're not on strike) on a worldwide scale. If they had better luck, too -- they had hired Terry Gilliam for a Andrea Chenier that just didn't happen after the director's pullout and many other mishaps widely reported at the time on Opera Chic. And that would have rocked this past season as hard as Tristan. But the main thrust of the argument makes sense: what a huge (1,000 staff) opera house with worldwide name recognition can do is in the end limited to the clarity of its artistic project.

Unlike other opera houses, the Music Director-less Scala doesn't have one (Daniel Barenboim is a glorified guest conductor with a shining tittle -- maestro scaligero -- that does not have influence on what happens most of the season when he isn't there. And yes, they cynically re-use glorious old stagings -- Zeffirelli's, Cavani's, Strehler's -- after giving them a light dusting, when they actually could do much better [especially given the scandalously high prices of the hard-to-find tickets -- about to be raised a cool 10%]) .

Anyway kudos to David for unlocking Violetta's mystery gives you like 100,000 G @ the Xbox360, and in bocca al lupo for the new Traviata, by0tch!

Those giving at this level will receive everything previously listed, as well as the following:

1. A VIP night at the opera with two tickets for the First Night of La traviata in Glasgow and an invitation to the First Night Party after the performance with the artists

2. Dinner with conductor Emmanuel Joel-Hornak and members of the cast, hosted by Alex Reedijk, Scottish Opera’s General Director

3. An invitation to watch a performance of La traviata ‘from the wings’.

On-stage parties – Exclusively for La traviata supporters

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sunday 23 November 2008 (post matinee) Theatre Royal, Glasgow Sunday 8 February 2009 (post matinee) Our special on-stage parties will take place after the above performances where you will have the chance to meet the artists. Tickets cost £25 and invitations will be sent to all La traviata supporters nearer the time

There are also going to be "Violetta champagne room" options for Super VIP supporters, we hear, but we're not authorized to mention them here.

OC really likes Pasolini -- more Pasolini the poeta than she likes Pasolini the film director, but whatevs -- and on paper the idea McVicar had, to stage Salome in a Salò-like environment, sounds cool, there may be problems inherent with this choice.

McVicar also chose -- just like in his savagely powerful, hard to watch even, Marxist Rigoletto production -- to create two levels in his sets, where the rich have fun and where the poor suffer (in this case, a slaughterhouse-like basement complete with animal carcasses hanging from hooks and a n4ked executioner with a big scimitar). The dance of the Seven Veils, without nudity, is essentially a series of creepy video flashbacks where there are strong hints of Salome being molested as a child (she quite certainly does get raped at the end of the opera anyway).

Richard Morrison in the Timesis a bit perplexed, and he also liked Nadja Michael much less than we liked her in Milan last year (but then it was a Bondy pretty minimalist production, def less xtreme, and Daniel "I Shall Steal Ur Thunda" Harding conducting). And then there are those who point out that "There is also a disturbing incongruity in having an interwar setting
which seems to evoke a version of Germany, with soldiers dressed in
what could well be Nazi uniforms, where a deranged potentate entertains
five Jews for dinner" (unless of course the Jews will eventually get eaten -- hey, here's an idea for signor McVicar if he wants to tinker with his production, courtesy of OC!).

The nature of McVicar's two-level setup made it so that people who had the misfortune to be seated high up in the Covent Garden's El Cheapo seats -- over here we call them il loggione to spray some sparkling glitter on the sadness of it all -- couldn't really see what the hayl was going on among the rich peoples having their party upstairs. Funny that somebody as revolutionary as David McV often decides to leave all the good bits of his productions to the richest members of the audience, comfortably sitting in the expensive seats with full views of the stage.

OC will probably have to drive up to Torino at this point, and check out Carsen's Salome instead, see what's going on -- Salò vs Ocean's Eleven. Herr Doktor Strauss would probably hide under his desk or something. As he should.

February 14, 2008

In the rehearsal room a part can be so different. Before you sing it on
stage you don't know what it does to your voice or how you can support
it. Success doesn't just fall out of the sky, you have to do a huge
amount of work on it

The Tribune editors, sadly, couldn't resist the century-old handle-Handel thing, but we're all for dumb humor, so more powah to them, etc.

No mention of a McVicar staging is complete without a quote of one of the great man's greatest moments (the following paragraphs are painted in Chanel Black Satin -- limited edition, by0tches!!! -- on OC's walk-in closet's door)